This piece was very difficult to write. Influencing what was finally written were: too many false starts and stops to count; changes in strategy; different proposals and the real possibility of coming up with nothing. The shutdown and deficit ceiling part has been rewritten at least five times and this opening three different times.
Originally, the title for this piece was “Oh, No! Not Again, or To Be or Not to Be That is the Question,” for the ongoing shutdown, but there was a deal that ended the stalemate late on Wednesday, Oct. 16. However, the pain is not over, nor are the negotiations to solve all of the issues that forced the closure and the brink of not increasing the debt ceiling.
The “deal” crafted by Senators Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell, and several senators from both parties passed both houses of Congress and was signed by the President, was a short-term fix. This is the reason for the revised title. The deal was not a fix but a temporary band-aid.